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Slang or expression for "extreme dark" | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| chenshujian Diglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5246 days ago 122 posts - 139 votes  Speaks: Mandarin*, English Studies: French | Message 1 of 14 11 September 2010 at 7:23am | IP Logged | ||
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In Chinese, there is an expression describing "extremely dark". “伸手不见五指”,which literally means " so dark that you can't even see your five fingers in front of your face."
I want to know if there is any similar expression in English for that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6175 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 14 11 September 2010 at 7:54am | IP Logged | ||
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"Pitch-black." It means extremely dark. Edited by newyorkeric on 11 September 2010 at 7:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Nudimmud Groupie United States Joined 4988 days ago 87 posts - 161 votes Studies: Greek, Korean | Message 3 of 14 11 September 2010 at 10:29am | IP Logged | ||
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Pitch black, mentioned above, is probably the most common expression; black as night or black as coal are also used.
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| chenshujian Diglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5246 days ago 122 posts - 139 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, English Studies: French | Message 4 of 14 11 September 2010 at 12:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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thanks. but it is used for describing colour or visibility, or both?
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| t123 Diglot Senior Member South Africa https://github.com/t Joined 5407 days ago 139 posts - 226 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans | Message 5 of 14 11 September 2010 at 12:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think it can be used for either. For example:
It was a pitch black horse. / A pitch black horse. It's pitch black in here, I can't see a thing. There's another expression, pitch dark, but I think it's only for visibility, example: It was a pitch dark horse. (Wrong) It's pitch dark in here, I can't see a thing. Edited by t123 on 11 September 2010 at 12:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Frieza Triglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5149 days ago 102 posts - 137 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2, French Studies: German | Message 6 of 14 16 September 2010 at 7:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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Jet-blackis another possibility.
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| maydayayday Pentaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5015 days ago 564 posts - 839 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese Studies: Urdu | Message 7 of 14 16 September 2010 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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Frieza
Sorry but "Jet black" wouldnt normally be used [in the UK at least] to refer to darkness but would refer more to a colour eg She had jet black hair The horse was jet black but had fluffy white hocks Or I entered the cellar, it was pitch black and cold, the hair(s) on my neck stood up. The fireworks really stood out in the pitch black night. But The fireworks really stood out in the jet black night: doesn't feel too wrong, but just a bit. People would know what you meant. Hope its helpful. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5807 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 8 of 14 16 September 2010 at 9:23pm | IP Logged | ||
In the case of "pitch black", it is predominantly used for darkness -- it's quite rare as a description of colour, but does exist. I've never seen "pitch dark" used myself, although the British National Corpus says it exists. The origin of the term "pitch black". "Pitch" is an old word for crude oil. If you put your hand in crude oil, it disappears -- you can't see it. Hence "pitch black" (literally "as black as crude oil") is when you can't see your hand in front of your face. However, no-one knows what "pitch" means anymore, so the meaning is changing slowly. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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